The Innu (the singular form of Innut, meaning "people"), also known as the Montagnais (; French for "mountain people"), are an Indigenous Canadian people inhabiting northeastern Labrador and some portions of Quebec. They refer to their traditional homeland as Nitassinan ("our land") or Innu-assi ('"Innu land").
The ancestors of the modern First Nations were known to have lived on these lands as hunter-gatherers for many thousands of years. To support their seasonal hunting migrations, they created portable tents made of animal skins. Their subsistence activities were historically centred on hunting and trapping caribou, moose, deer, and small game.
The Innu language is spoken throughout Nitassinan, with certain dialect differences. It is part of the Cree–Montagnais–Naskapi dialect continuum, and is unrelated to the Inuit languages of other nearby peoples.
The Innu are divided into the Innus of Nutashkuan in the south and the Naskapi in the north. Both groups differ in dialect and partly also in their way of life and culture. Today, about 28,960 or Innu proper (Nehilaw and Ilniw – "people")
- The Naskapi (also known as Innu and Iyiyiw), live farther north and are less numerous. The Innu recognize several distinctions among their people (e.g. Mushuau Innuat, Maskuanu, Uashau Innuat) based on different regional affiliations and speakers of various dialects of the Innu language.thumb|Innu communities of Quebec and Labrador and the two Naskapi communities (Kawawachikamach and Natuashish)|alt=
The word Naskapi was first recorded by French colonists in the 17th century. They applied it to distant Innu groups who were beyond the reach of Catholic missionary influence. It was particularly applied to those people living in the lands that bordered Ungava Bay and the northern Labrador coast, near the Inuit communities of northern Quebec and northern Labrador. Gradually it came to refer to the people known today as the Naskapi First Nation.
The Naskapi are traditionally nomadic peoples, in contrast with the more sedentary Montagnais, who establish settled territories.
The Mushuau Innuat (plural), while related to the Naskapi, split off from the tribe in the 1900s. They were subject to a government relocation program at Davis Inlet. Some of the families of the Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach have close relatives in the Cree village of Whapmagoostui, on the eastern shore of Hudson Bay.
Since 1990, the Montagnais people have generally chosen to be officially referred to as the Innu, which means human being in Innu-aimun. The Naskapi have continued to use the word Naskapi.
Innu communities
Labrador communities
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! rowspan=2 |Peoples
! rowspan=2 |Population<br>(2024)
! rowspan=2 |Reserve or<br>Settlement
! rowspan=2 |On reserve<br>population (2024)
! colspan=3 |Reserve area
|-
! ha
! acre
! sq mi
|-
|Mushuau Innu First Nation
|align=right |1,210
|Natuashish 2
|align=right |1,115
|
|-
|Sheshatshiu Innu First Nation
|align=right |1,994
|Sheshatshiu
|align=right |1,773
|
|}
Quebec communities
Conseil tribal Mamit Innuat
About 3,700 members
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! rowspan=2 |Peoples
! rowspan=2 |Population<br>(2024)
! rowspan=2 |Reserve or<br>Settlement
! rowspan=2 |On reserve<br>population (2024)
! colspan=3 |Reserve area
|-
! ha
! acre
! sq mi
|-
|Innus of Ekuanitshit
|align=right |732
|Mingan
|align=right |672
|
|-
|Première Nation des Innus de Nutashkuan
|align=right |1,274
|Nutashkuan
|align=right |1,148
|
|-
|Montagnais de Pakua Shipi (St-Augustin Indian Settlement)
|align=right |413
|Pakuashipi
|align=right |41
|
|-
|Montagnais de Unamen Shipu
|align=right |1,286
|Romaine 2
|align=right |1,135
|
|}
Conseil tribal Mamuitun
Over 23,000 members
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! rowspan=2 |Peoples
! rowspan=2 |Population<br>(2024)
! rowspan=2 |Reserve or<br>Settlement
! rowspan=2 |On reserve<br>population (2024)
! colspan=3 |Reserve area
|-
! ha
! acre
! sq mi
|-
| rowspan="2" |Innu Nation of Matimekush-Lac John
|align=right rowspan="2" |1,065
|Lac-John
|align=right rowspan="2" |3,621
|
|-
|Matimekosh 3
|
|-
| rowspan="2" |Innu Takuaikan Uashat Mak Mani-Utenam
|align=right rowspan="2" |5,039
|Maliotenam 27A
|align=right rowspan="2" |3,621
|
|-
|Uashat 27
|
|-
|Innue Essipit
|align=right |2,032
|Innue Essipit
|align=right |261
|
|-
|Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation
|align=right |11,037
|Mashteuiatsh
|align=right |2,115
|
|-
|Pessamit Innu Band
|align=right |4,185
|Betsiamites (Pessamit)
|align=right |2,849
|
|}
Kawawachikamach
{| class="wikitable sortable"
|-
! rowspan=2 |Peoples
! rowspan=2 |Population<br>(2024)
! rowspan=2 |Reserve or<br>Settlement
! rowspan=2 |On reserve<br>population (2024)
! colspan=3 |Reserve area
|-
! ha
! acre
! sq mi
|-
| Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach
|align=right |817
|Kawawachikamach<br>(Kawawachikamach (Naskapi village municipality))
|align=right |704
|
|}
History
thumb|Reindeer hunting in Labrador
The Innu were possibly the group identified in Greenlandic Norse by Norsemen as Skrælings. They referred to Nitassinan as Markland.
The Innu were historically allied with neighbouring Atikamekw, Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) and Algonquin peoples against their enemies, the Algonquian-speaking Mi'kmaq and Iroquoian-speaking Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy (known as Haudenosaunee. During the Beaver Wars (1609–1701), the Iroquois repeatedly invaded the Innu territories from their homelands south of the Great Lakes. They took women and young males as captive slaves, and plundered their hunting grounds in search of more furs. Since these raids were made by the Iroquois with unprecedented brutality, the Innu themselves adopted the torment, torture, and cruelty of their enemies.
The Naskapi, on the other hand, usually had to confront the southward advancing Inuit in the east of the peninsula.
thumb|Roman Catholic procession of First Nations people in the Labrador peninsula
Innu oral tradition describes the original encounters of the Innu and the French explorers led by Samuel de Champlain as fraught with distrust. Neither group understood the language of the other, and the Innu were concerned about the motives of the French explorers.
The French asked permission to settle on the Innu's coastal land, which the Innu called Uepishtikueiau. This eventually developed as Quebec City. According to oral tradition, the Innu at first declined their request. The French demonstrated their ability to farm wheat on the land and promised they would share their bounty with the Innu in the future, which the Innu accepted.
Two distinct versions of the oral history describe the outcome. In the first, the French used gifts of farmed food and manufactured goods to encourage the Innu to become dependent on them. Then, the French changed it to a mercantile relationship: trading these items to the Innu in exchange for furs. When the nomadic Innu went inland for the winter, the French increased the size and population of their settlement considerably, eventually completely displacing the Innu.
The second, and more widespread, version of the oral history describes a more immediate conflict. In this version, the Innu taught the French how to survive in their traditional lands. Once the French had learned enough to survive on their own, they began to resent the Innu. The French began to attack the Innu, who retaliated in an attempt to reclaim their ancestral territory. The Innu had a disadvantage in numbers and weaponry, and eventually began to avoid the area rather than risk further defeat. During this conflict, the French colonists took many Innu women as wives. French women did not immigrate to New France in the early period.
French explorer Samuel de Champlain eventually became involved in the Innu's conflict with the Iroquois, who were ranging north from their traditional territory around the Great Lakes in present-day New York and Pennsylvania. On July 29, 1609, at Ticonderoga or Crown Point, New York, (historians are not sure which of these two places), Champlain and his party encountered a group of Iroquois, likely Mohawk, who were the easternmost tribe of the Five Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy. A battle began the next day. As two hundred Iroquois advanced on Champlain's position, a native guide pointed out the three enemy chiefs to the French. According to legend, Champlain fired his arquebus and killed two of the Mohawk chiefs with one shot; one of his men shot and killed the third. The Mohawk reportedly fled the scene. Although the French also traded extensively with the Mohawk and other Iroquois, and converted some to Catholicism, they also continued to have armed conflicts with them.
Historical bands
The southern bands of the Montagnais-Naskapi were encountered by Europeans early in the seventeenth century while the northern ones, except for some on James Bay, were not well known until the nineteenth century.
The following are bands of the Montagnais-Naskapi in the 17th century:
- Bersimis, around the Bersimis River
- Chicoutimi, north of Chicoutimi
- Chisedec, around Seven Islands and around the Moise River
- Escoumains, around the Escoumains River
- Godbout, around the Godbout River
- Mistassini, around Lake Mistassini
- Nichikun, around Nichikun Lake
- Ouchestigouetch, at the heads of Manikuagan and Kaniapiskau Rivers.
- Oumamiwek (or Ste. Marguerite), west of the Ste. Marguerite River
- Papinachois, at the head of the Bersimis River and east of it
- Tadousac, west of the lower Saguenay River
By 1850, the Chisedec, Oumamiwek, and Papinachois had disappeared or been renamed, and many new bands in the north of Nitassinan were discovered:
- Barren Ground, on the middle course of the George River
- Big River, around the Great Whale and Fort George Rivers
- Davis Inlet, south of the Barren Ground band
- Eastmain, north of the Eastmain River.
- Kaniapiskau, at the head of the Kaniapiskau River
- Michikamau, around Michikamau Lake
- Mingan, on the Mingan River
- Musquaro (or Romaine), on the Olomanoshibo River
- Natashkwan, on the Natashkwan River
- Northwest River, north of Hamilton Inlet and on the Northwest River
- Petisikapau, in the country around Petisikapau Lake
- Rupert House, around Rupert Bay and the Rupert River
- St. Augustin, on the St. Augustin River
- Shelter Bay, around modern-day Shelter Bay
- Ungava, southwest of the Ungava Bay
- Waswanipi, on the Waswanipi River
- White Whale River, between Lake Minto and Little Whale River and eastward to the Kaniapiskau River
Present status
The Innu of Labrador and those living on the north shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence in the Canadian Shield region have never officially ceded their territory to Canada by way of treaty or other agreement. But, as European-Canadians began widespread forest and mining operations at the turn of the 20th century, the Innu became increasingly settled in coastal communities and in the interior of Quebec. The Canadian and provincial governments, the Catholic, Moravian, and Anglican churches, all encouraged the Innu to settle in more permanent, majority-style communities, in the belief that their lives would improve with this adaptation. This coercive assimilation resulted in the Innu giving up some traditional activities (hunting, trapping, fishing). Because of these social disruptions and the systemic disadvantages faced by Indigenous peoples, community life in the permanent settlements often became associated with high levels of substance abuse, domestic violence, and suicide among the Innu.
The flag of the Innu Nation was carried aboard the Artemis II mission that traveled further into space than any humans before this flight. Geological features of the Kamestatin crater in the nation's traditional hunting grounds was a training site for Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen.
Labrador Innu organizations and land claims
In 1999, Survival International published a study of the Innu communities of Labrador. It assessed the adverse effects of the Canadian government's relocating the people far from their ancestral lands and preventing them from practising their ancient way of life.
Davis Inlet, Labrador
In the 1999 study of Innu communities in Labrador, Survival International concluded that government policies violated contemporary international law in human rights, and drew parallels with the treatment of Tibetans by the People's Republic of China. According to the study, from 1990 to 1997, the Innu community of Davis Inlet had a suicide rate more than twelve times the Canadian average, and well over three times the rate often observed in isolated northern villages. <!-- Needs more explanation of government's relocating Innu - not covered in existing text -->
By 2000, the Innu island community of Davis Inlet asked the Canadian government to assist with a local addiction public health crisis. At their request, the community was relocated to a nearby mainland site, now known as Natuashish. At the same time, the Canadian government created the Natuashish and Sheshatshiu band councils under the Indian Act.
Kawawachikamach, Quebec
Naskapi Nation of Kawawachikamach, Quebec, signed a comprehensive land claims settlement, the Northeastern Quebec Agreement; they did so in 1978. As a consequence, the Naskapi of Kawawachikamach are no longer subject to certain provisions of the Indian Act. All the Innu communities of Quebec are still subject to the Act.
New York Power Authority controversy
The New York Power Authority's proposed contract in 2009 with the province of Quebec to buy power from its extensive hydroelectric dam facilities has generated controversy, because it was dependent on construction of a new dam complex and transmission lines that would have interfered with the traditional ways of the Innu. According to the Sierra Club: